Then She Was Gone

Let me say first off, that the book is well written, well crafted, and just plain good. I bumped up against the ads for it on The New Yorker website, then on Amazon, and as always, am looking for a good, well written suspense/thriller/mystery type read. ( I don\’t think there are enough of them being spun out!) The hook had me, What The **** Happened to Ellie? The writing lures you in…….the whole family saga thing, dysfunction, loss, grief, etc. What I really want to say is, like my headline, caution. This is a very, very disturbing book. The central characters emerge slowly and if you are like me, I\’m reading along wanting to find out wtf happened to Ellie? And unlike many readers, I don\’t try to figger out what happened, who dunnit…… what you find out about Ellie and the other characters in the book is scary stuff. So, what I\’m saying is, if you are a sensitive soul who is is averse to childhood abuse/torture and highly damaged manipulative people, I\’d suggest not reading this. I gave it 5 stars for the craft of writing, it is well written, and the writing supports the the plot and story, in spite of what i\’ve said re: caveat emptor.

\”Then She Was Gone\” is a novel about a fifteen year old girl named Ellie Mack who disappears in 2005. Much of the book takes place in 2015, and is told from the point of view of Laurel Mack, the missing girl\’s mother. Ellie was Laurel\’s youngest daughter. Ellie\’s remains have finally been found, so maybe the family can now have some closure. Not that the family unit is still intact. Laurel was so filled with grief over the last ten years that she had nothing left of herself for her husband or her other children. Now Laurel is divorced, and is estranged from her older daughter and son. The book alternates between 2015, back to 2005, when the story is told from Ellie\’s point of view. The reader learns what happened to this fifteen year girl. And, eventually, Laurel learns the truth also. This is the third book I\’ve read by Lisa Jewell, and I\’m giving it five stars like I did the other two. But, unlike the other two, I\’m not recommending it for everybody. Something awful happens in this book. Those who don\’t like reading disturbing things should move on to something else. Not that it\’s all that graphic. It\’s just so heartbreaking and hard to get out of your head. Why do I like this author so much? Because, once I start one of her books, it\’s hard to put down. Sometimes books, even good books, feel a bit like \”homework\” to me. But not Lisa Jewell\’s books. She makes me want to know more about the characters and about what I will discover next. There\’s a lot of nuance in her characters. Also, I think the fact that Lisa Jewell is British is part of the charm. I love the settings, the strange brand names, the unfamiliar expressions, and words not commonly used in the U.S. I love the amount of detail, not too much and not too little. Lisa Jewell\’s writing style reminds me a little of Liane Moriorty, although this particular book has some of the darkness of Gillian Flynn and is as disturbing as a Karin Slaughter book.

This book was incredibly suspenseful and well written. In that respect I would have rated it higher. The subject matter, though, was so distressing to me personally that I cannot recommend reading it. The concluding chapters and ending were both not believable and unacceptable. In sum, while this book possessed the ingredients for greatness, the storyline unfolded in such a horrific manner that it washed away the good.

if you like reading about captivity and the death of animals, this is the book for you. in addition, it has unlikable, unbelievable characters, an easy to figure out plot, and no suspense. i dislike the use of flashacks to tell a story, and i also dislike the use of an unreliable point of view. i regret buying and reading this novel.

My favorite psychological thrillers are ones that leave me on the edge of my seat, but also have a \”somewhat\” happy ending (one that I\’m satisfied with, anyway.) This book did not disappoint. I read it in 2 days and only because I forced myself to give my family some attention. So well written and will keep you hooked. I liked that there were no hidden characters, as there so often are in thrillers, and you can somewhat figure out the mystery on your own, but then are still duped in the end. Brilliant.

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